Wallace's pride about his 1858 Ternate paper
Full transcription
Batchian, Moluccas. Nov. 30th. [18]/58
My dear George
I do not think I have written to you very lately. I have just received yours of August 3. with reminiscences of Switzerland. To you it seems a short time since. To me an immeasurable series of ages. In fact Switzerland & the Amazon now seem to me quite unreal, - a sort of former existence,- a long-ago dream. Malays & Papuans,- Beetles & Birds are what now occupy my thoughts mixed with financial speculation & hopes for a happy future in Old England, where I may live in solitude & seclusion except from a few close friends. You cannot perhaps imagine how I have come to love solitude. I seldom have a visitor but what I wish him away in an hour. I find it very favourable to reflection, & if you have any acquaintance who is a member of the Linnaean Society borrow the Journal of proceedings of August last & in the last article you will find some of my latest lucubrations with some complementary
[written vertically at the left hand side of the page]
P.S. I have to send this at a moments notice. Can not write home so call on my mother AW. Dec. 20
remarks therein by
Sir. C. Lyell & Dr. Hooker which (as I know neither
of them) I must say I am a little proud of. As to politics I hate &
abominate them. The news from India I now never read, as it
is all an inextricable confusion without good maps &
regular papers, mine come in lumps 2 or 3 months at a time with the
alternate ones stolen or lost. I therefore try you to write no more
politics. Nothing public or newspaperish. Tell me about yourself, -
your own private doings,- your health, your visits your new or old
acquaintances, (for I know you pick up ½ a dozen every
month, à la Barragan.) But above all tell me
of what you read. Have you read the Currency book I returned you? -
"Horne Tooke"? - Bentham,? Family Herald Leading Articles?- Give me
your opinions on any or all of these. Follow the advice in
Fam[ily]. Herald art[icle]. on "Happiness" - "Ride a hobby", & you will
assuredly find happiness in it as I do. Let Ethnology be your hobby, as you
seem already to have put your foot in the stirrup, - but ride it
hard. If
I live to return I shall come out strong as Malay & Papuan
races, & astonish Latham, Davis, &c. &c - by the byes I
have just had a letter from Davis; he <says he> says
he sent my last letter to you, & it is lost mysteriously.
Instead therefore of sending me an answer to my poser, he repeats what he has
said in every letter
I have had from
him "myriads of
miracles are required to people the earth from one
source." I am sick of him - you must read "Pritchard"
through, & "Lawrence's Lectures on Man" carefully but I am
convinced no man can be a good ethnologist who does not travel,
& not travel merely but reside as I do months & years with
each race, becoming well acquainted with their average physiognomy
& moral character, so as to be able to detect cross-breeds, which totally mislead
the hasty traveller who thinks
they are transitions!! Latham I am sure is quite wrong on
many points. To New
guinea I took an old edition of "Tristram Shandy" which I read
about three times. It is an
annoying or you will perhaps say a very gross book, but there are
passages in it that have never been surpassed while the character
of
Uncle Toby has certainly never been equalled except perhaps by that of Don Quixote. I have lately read a good many of Dumas' wonderful novels & they are wonderful but often very careless, & some quite unfinished. The memoirs of a Physician" is a most wonderful wild mixture of History, Science, & romance - the 2nd. part "The Queen's Necklace" is most wonderful & perhaps most true. You should read them (if you have not) when you are horribly "bored".
As to your private communication in former letters, I am very sorry you have not been fortunate in your "affaires du coeur." All I can say is "try again". Marriage has a wonderful effect in brightening the intellect. For example John used not to be considered witty, yet in his last letter he begs me "to write to him "Semi-occasionally or oftener if I have time" & I send you a not bad extract from his letter, with an idea of my own on "smoke", to send to the Athenaeum. By this mail I send more than a dozen letters for my correspondence is increasing. You must therefore excuse this random lot of odds & ends & send me a ditto in return, only more so.I must now conclude
Remaining my dear G.
Yours ever Faithfully
[signed] Alfred R. Wallace
[to] G.C.Silk Esq.
[written vertically at the left hand side of the page]
P.S. A big spider fell close to my hand in the middle of my signature wh.[ich] accounts for the hitch.
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